ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Environmental Health and Exposome
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1636571
Melanoma Prevalence: Can Medical Literacy Overcome the Rise in UV Radiation? United States as a case study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Western Galilee College, Acre, Israel
- 2Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
- 3The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
- 4Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
- 5Emek Medical Center, Afula, Israel
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Background: Recent literature shows melanoma prevalence is steadily increasing, mainly due to UV radiation exposure, especially in Caucasians. Skin cancer causes $8.9 billion in direct annual cost and unmeasured indirect costs, but can be prevented by avoiding sun exposure, using protective creams, and regular dermatologists visits for suspicious nevi.Methods: Using CDC data on non-Hispanic Caucasians, we conducted an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to examine the differences in age-adjusted melanoma incidence rates per 100,000. Quadratic Poisson, Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and Two-Stage Least Squares (TSLS) regressions were employed, with UV index and education levels-measured by the percentage of the population holding at least a bachelor's degree-as key explanatory variables.â–ª Projected new melanoma cases have doubled over a 23-year period. â–ª Projected new melanoma cases drop from 800-835 to 340-380 as population rises, despite higher UV radiation levels in larger states like California. â–ª The protective effect of education against melanoma is supported empirically:â–ª A 12-16% increase in education level offsets the 23-year melanoma growth rate. â–ª A 25-30% increase in education level offsets a 1% rise in UV exposure.Conclusions: From a public policy standpoint, raising awareness about sun exposure protection and encouraging regular examinations by professional dermatologists, especially in sparsely populated areas with high UV radiation-could be crucial in reducing the remarkable costs associated with melanoma morbidity and treatment.
Keywords: Melanoma Prevalence, Health Literacy, Knowledge spillover, UV radiation, population size
Received: 28 May 2025; Accepted: 15 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Arbel, Arbel, Kerner and Kerner. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yuval Arbel, Western Galilee College, Acre, Israel
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